Andor Technology is based in Belfast, Northern Ireland and operates at the high-value end of the global scientific digital camera market. Andor was setup in 1989 out of Queen's University in Belfast, and now employs over 200 people in 15 offices worldwide and distributes its products to 10,000 customers in 55 countries.
As portrayed in our mission statement, the principal business of Andor is the development and manufacture of high performance digital cameras. Further, we look to share our expertise to develop the best solutions for your light measuring problems, distributing our products to a customer base encompassing both the scientific research & industrial communities.
Super-Resolution Microscopy
Resolution limits imposed by light diffraction have always been major obstacle in analysing microscopic images and obtaining insights into the fabric of living cells. To date, our best optical tools have only revealed structures measuring approximately 200 nm across and anything below that limit has been inaccessible for direct observations. Unfortunately, most cellular organelles involved in physiologically important processes involving cell-to-cell communication, growth and response to number of environmental signals are often below that limiting threshold of 200 nm. For example, synaptic vesicles, receptor proteins complexes and cellular skeletal assemblies can be as small as 50 nm yet our understanding of their function could be greatly improved if only direct optical recording was possible.
Several novel microscopic techniques made this possible and previously inaccessible nano-environments began to be mapped. PALMIRA, STORM, FIONA as well as a number of related approaches have started to yield outstanding results. For the first time direct optical recordings of sub-resolution structures allowed addressing important structural and physiological questions. Answers to these questions will dramatically improve our understanding of the nature of processes involving responses of living cells to stress, damage, proliferation and interactions in their complex physiological milieu.
Andor Solutions for Super-Resolution Microscopy
The super-resolution microscopy is capable of going beyond the diffraction limit of optical microscopy, thereby helping cell biologists to resolve structures such as molecules or vesicles separated by less than 200nm. STED microscopy, RESOLFT, PALM/STORM, and SIM are some of the key super-resolution techniques.
Acquiring images in low light conditions is a difficult task as such experiments are characterized by low-signal / high-noise. However, the EMCCD camera can lower the camera noise floor even at rapid readout speeds, making it ideal for such applications. Furthermore, with the introduction of brighter and more photo-stable fluorophores, Zyla 4.2 PLUS provides an alternative solution to super-resolution microscopy as it has very high quantum efficiency (QE) and frame rates.
Zyla 4.2 PLUS
It is possible to use the highest QE sCMOS especially when utilizing small ROIs owing to its intrinsically low read noise and rapid frame rates. For instance, 403fps at 512 x 512 either via USB 3.0 or CameraLink.
- 4.2MP
- 82 % QE
- 0.9 e- read noise
- 100 fps (53fps from USB 3.0)
iXon Ultra 888
EMCCD cameras can maintain lower laser intensities at low light intensities, i.e., below 10 photons per pixel. This, in turn, reduces fluorophore bleaching and phototoxicity.
- 1MP
- USB 3.0
- 30MHz readout
- Single photon sensitive
GPU Express
The GPU Express from Andor can be integrated easily with SDK3 (Windows) for Andor sCMOS cameras, thus offering easy-to-use yet robust solution for handling high bandwidth data flow issues.
- Rapid real time processing frame rates
- Guaranteed optimal data throughout
Customer Testimonials
The Zyla 4.2 brings higher effective sensitivity to Andor sCMOS offerings and is the tool for us to explore sCMOS technology for super-resolution promising faster frame rates.
Christian Soeller Exeter University, UK
The large field of view and the excellent resolution of the iXon Ultra 888 is ideal for the super-resolution images acquired with our home-built dSTORM microscope.
Alan Lowe & Ricardo Henriques University College London
We have successfully been using Andor iXon cameras for many years for super-resolution microscopy, the resolution and sensitivity of these cameras is exceptional.
Mike Heilemann Goethe-University
Andor Revolution TIRF
Revolution encompasses a range of components, both hardware and software that fit seamlessly together creating a complete laser microscopy solutions. Incorporating the Andor Laser Combiner, Revolution TIRF includes flexible fiber-coupled 400-650 nm excitation compatible with all TIRF platforms; matched illuminator and EMCCD detector for maximum performance; multiple fast switching fiber outputs for confocal, TIRF and photobleach; integral AOTF for microsecond wavelength, shuttering and intensity control.
This information has been sourced, reviewed and adapted from materials provided by Andor Technology Ltd.
For more information on this source, please visit Andor Technology Ltd.